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AT WASHINGTON. 



(From the Madisonian.) 
A meeting of Democrats of the highest respect^ 
bilit3 r , composed of mail contractors and others, from 
almost every State in the Union, was held at the Globe 
Hotel, well known as the Democratic Head Quarters 
of the city oi Washington, on Monday evening, the 
1st day of April inst. 

The meeting was composed of old and influential Democrats, 
and among the number were some of the delegates appointed to 
the Conventioh already chosen or packed, to assemble at Balti- 
more on the 27th day of May next, and yet among the number, 
not an individual was to be found whose first choice was Martin 
Van Buren for the ensuing contest — though one of the Balti- 
more Delegates said, that next to John Tylei, be was his choice. 

The meeting having been called to order by Joseph Hall, Esq. 
of Philadelphia, who, in a brief and pertinent manner, stated the 
objects for which they had assembled, when the Hon. H. C. 
Flagg, of Connecticut, was appointed President, and Joseph 
Hall, Thomas B. Park, Lvman Searle, U. Norcross, D. Sander- 
son, A. Yorkers, D. Senile, and J. S. Allen, Esquires, were cho- 
sen Vice Presidents. Hiram Gumming, of New York, and D. 
C. Woodruff, of New Jersey, were appointed Secretaries of the 
meeting. 

The meeting was then addressed by the President, who, in a 
forcible manner, clearly demonstrated the utter impossibility of 
Mr. Van Buren's success at the ensuing contest, and came to 
the wise conclusion that the honest and talented statesman now 
in the Presidential chair is the only Democrat in the field wh» 



tfl\ 



2 

could be elected, and hoped that every true friend of his country 
would unite in doing "justice to John Tyler." 

He sat-down amidst the cheers of an enthusiastic audience. 

A committee was then appointed to report resolutions expres- 
sive of the sense of the meeting, consisting of Hiram Camming, 
J. Hall, Luman Searle, J. S. Allen, and I). C. Woodruff, Esq.'s 
who, after being absent some time, reported the following reso- 
lutions, by their Chairman, 11. Cumming, which were unani- 
mously adopted, and received the enthusiastic approbation of all 
present : 

Resolved, That this meeting believe it to de a duty incumbent 
.on every true friend of Democracy to speak out when thev see 
the party in imminent peril. The members of ihis meeting, 
composed of Democratic citizens from every part of this Union 
— therefore present the following objections against Mr. Van 
Buren's being the candidate of the Democracy at Baltimore. 

1. Because, When he run in '3G, a small change in the elec- 
toral vote of one of the States would have lost Mr. Van Buren 
the election. 

• 2. Because, When in the chair, with all the patronage of the 
Government to sustain him, and the unanimous nomination of 
the party in '40, he only received 60 out of the 294 of the elec- 
toral college. 

3. Because, An ejected candidate from the Presidential chair 
has never been re-nominated for that high station by the people. 
*4. Because, It is anti-republican as well as very perilous to 
the People, io run a man the third time for the Presidency, and 
that time to be at the next Presidential election after the P< ople 
had pronounced their loud and overwhelming veto against him. 

5. Because, He in his native State, after anxiously and care- 
fully canvassing it in '40, was not only beaten by a large majority 
but ran many thousands behind his tic Lei, which clearly shows 
that he was unpopular with the people of his own party. 

6. Because, The success of the Democratic party must not 
be again jeopardized by running a candidate who was not only 
overwhelmed himself, but who entombed the Democratic Govern- 
ors, members of Congress, and rnemTers of the State Legisla- 
tures in almost every State in the Union in the same Van Buren 
grave with himself. 

7. Because, If he should run and fail, and we fee] confident 
he must fail should he be the candidate, the name of Van Bu- 
ren would not oidy become politically extinct, but the whole par- 
ty would have to sit down in sackcloth and ashes, and for a long 
time bewail their loss. 

8. Because, Iti 1840, with all the political patronage of the 
Government, he not only run behind Gov.Bouck many thousands, 
but run behind his ticket in every town, county and State in the 



Union, and that scarce an individual can be found in any section 
of the country who voted against him then who will vote for him 
now, and that lie is still more unpopular than when the people 
pronounced their signal, decided and unqualified rebuke of the 
man and his leading measure. 

2. Resolved, That we approve of the re-annexation of Texas to 
the United States, a most valuable region of country, at this time 
in possession of citizeus of this Republic, speaking the same 
language, and in every way identified with this people. 

3. Resolved, That we fearlessly commit the Oregon question 
to President Tyler, feeling confident, as we do> that he will agree 
to no treaty with Great Britain to be presented to the Senate, 
that will not comport with the honor and dignity of the nation. 

4. Resolved, That this meeting highly approve of the Bank 
vetoes of Gen. Jackson and John Tyler, that they firmly believe 
that the people are waiting to do that justice to President Tyler, 
by electing him in '44, that they did to President Jackson, when 
they so triumphantly re-elected him for his Bank veto in '32. 

5. Resolved, That as the contest for the Presidency in '44 will 
turn upon the question of Bank or no Bank, it will be absolutely 
necessary, if the Democratic party wish to be triumphant, to 
nominate John Tyler as the Veto candidate for President. 

6. Resolved, That we have the fullest confidence in the firm- 
ness, talents and exalted virtues of the President of the United 
States, in whom we have the most abiding confidence, hnoiving 
that he will continue most ably to sustain the weight of the Gov- 
ernment of this proud, complex and powerful Confederacy. 

7. Resolved, That we hail, as the harbinger of great good to 
the nation, the appointment of the Hon. John C. Calhoun — the 
honest, chivalrous, and highly gifted Carolinian — to the Secreta- 
ryship of State, and that we feel secure in the safety of our free 
institutions, while in the hands of statesmen of such purity of pur- 
pose and power of intellect as John Tyler and John C. Calhoun. 

Hiram Gumming, Esq. of New York, having been called for 
addressed the meeting. 

The meeting then resolved that the proceedings be signed by 
the Chairman and Secretary, and published in the Madisonian 
and other Democratic papers friendly to the Administration, and 
that they adjourn, which they did with the greatest good feeling. 

A. H. FLAGG, Pres't. 

Hiram Cummixg, 



D. C. Woodruff. 



Sectetaries. 



SPEECH 

OF 

HIRAM GUMMING, ESQ. 



Mr. Chairman : 
/ 

It is with no ordinary feelings that I rise to address old, re- 
spected and influential Democrats in such numbers here assem- 
bled, without previous concert, from almost every section of this 
great union. 

And what rends to heighten those emotions, it so happens that 
the choice candidate for the Presidential Chair at the ensuing 
campaign, is the pure hearted and true Virginian, who now fills 
that exalted station. This is right. For him the Democratic 
party still cherish those feelings which thrilled through their 
bosoms for his lofty acts of patriotism in fearlessly vetoing the 
odious Bank Bills which Henry Clay and his Federal partisans 
surreptitiously attempted to fasten upon our beloved country. — 
What honest Democrat can oppose him, who recollects the in- 
tense anxiety with which we all awaited the grand move upon 
which the future destinies of our republic was suspended, and 
that by one bold and masterly stroke of policy he annihilated all 
the rash projects of federalism, raised the democracy from its 
prostrate condition, and restored confidence and hope in the breast 
of every true patriot, of the ultimate triumph of the principle, 
that man is capable of self government. For thse noble deeds, for 
which lie almost suffered martyrdom, shall he not be amply ic- 
warded in his own life time, while still fresh in the remembrance 
of a grateful people? Or shall we wait for the tardv hand of the 
historian after he shall have been gathered home to bis fathers ! 
No sir! I hear, no sii, I respond, for the ingratitude of republics 
is no longer proverbial, it remained for the people of this conti- 
nent to wipe that foul slain from the character of freemen, and 
believe me, that every feeling that ever prompted a virtuous peo- 
ple to do justice to a public benefactor, and to reward the patriot for 
his services, has become suddenly aroused throughout the length 
and the breadth of the land where the sovereigns themselves 
seem determined to take the cause into their own hands, and in 
their own good way pay the deep debt of gratitude every un- 
trammelled frecm-iii owes to the uoble author of the vetoes of 



SL Fo '„ J hi « I 10 " TT democrat «■ ^e nation owes him 
Ins vote, and which we doubt not will be paid with the same 
promptuude that he himself arrested the higE handed SSZ 
of the federal aristocracy, when with a firmness of purpose and a 
decision of action which would have done honor to\he proudest 

and *a iT ,C;U1 , R 1 0m , e ' hC Stayed tbeirrash and P»oud course, 
and said thus far shalt thou come and no farther 

For this you all remember how the Democracy rejoiced and 

hanked the presiding genius of our country that such a m had 

been raised up and placed by an all wise and mysteriouTprovt 

dence, ,n a position to save our republic, and raise us from our 

£ZZS22£i f Witb other 1 °, the ** to S*" "IS 

ardently attached from very early life, I hailed those acts as the 

been :hn-,b v' ny """"F' My prlnci P !cs ° f democracy having 
" . d "'f > ' '"Pressed upon my young and tender mind during 
the wai of 1812, and in the support of which I have ever been 
honest arden j and fearless without ever asking or receiving Zy 
politic;.] emolument whatever ; having voted strictly with the par- 
ty, and adhered to the fortunes of the New York MagieiaD — 
that was, the talismanjc influence of whose wand has now 
however lost its power. I never loved the man, for I saw no lof- 
ty act ot patriotism, no splendor of achievement, in a single in- 
stance mark his character, and which alone can rivet the affec- 
tions of the people to their statesmen. Yet I was most ardently 
attached to the party who defended our homes, our firesides, and 
our common country from the American Savage and the British 
barbarian during one of the most trying periods in the history ofour 
republic. I saw Mr. Van Buret) after opposing the patriot James 
Madison, the war candidate for the presidency, by a sort of leger- 
demain I could never understand, without the love or confidence 
of the rank and file of the democratic party, without any person- 
al popularity whatever, wind himself into dignified and exalted 
stations, till he attained with the aid of a chapter of accidents the 
presidential chair. 

As a choice of evils I always supported him — with the,demo- 
ritic party I was bound to vole through life, whenever f* ' 
e found. I saw him after a brief period displaced in 
•.„„.i m onnpr and with him the party I so dearly loved 



in manv. a one trom cneii iwucu u. «^~ .......... 

and the decree will never be revoked by those who pronounced £ 
and he who thinks different, little understands the people o. h s 
country who never loved the man, whose affections he neve had, 
with wh'om he never mingles and has no fellow feeling ^vho al- 
ways distrusted him and never believed him honest and open 



hearted, even after he had wound himself into the favor of the - 
unsuspecting old Roman. They were always whispering of his 
cunning, his" intrigue, his magic powers, his alternately opposing 
and supporting almost every man and measure ; his deadly thrusts 
at Dewitt Clinton through life, and his crocodile tears over his 
grave ; his abuse of Gen. Jackson in 1824, and his support of him 
in 1828. They were tired of him — They had seen him raised 
by their generosity and their munificence from poverty to 
be one of the most princely nabobs in the land, and to the 
presidential chair; and still they saw him the cold, callous 
hearted "ingrate," whose craven thirst for more, was never to be 
satiated ; whose only aspiration was self-aggrandizement, and 
whose ruling passions were profit and powei. Could it have been 
expected that such a man with a system of machinery however 
curious and complicated, would always keep in power, and by a 
strange sort of political legerdemain, shuffle himself at vnll to the 
top of the pack. No sit — the people rose, broke their party 
shackles, and in a manner not to be misunderstood, pronounced 
fheir unqualified rebuke of the man — hundreds of thousands of 
the democracy voting against him from pure hatred, and it is an 
insult to them, to even talk of him as a candidate, supposing that 
they will reverse their decision ; and they receive it as such. — 
Could Mr. Van Buren himself travel through the country "m- 
cog," and hear the eveiy day language of tne democracy, he 
would soon be satisfied that althouj 1) he might remain the sage 
of lAndenwald, that he could v- er again be President of these 
Uuifed States, that the people would veto him as often and with 
as much decision as PRESIDENT TYLER vetoed the bank?. 
'Tis passing straDge that he and his partisans are so reckless. — 
ignorant they cannot be, for appearances are too ominous of his 
hopeless fortunes. The signs of the times throughout the un- 
ion, indicate that the peopl ■ are determined, who are rising in all 
their majesty in favor of the veto candidate, and the deep and 
settled 'mured against the rejected* defeated, distanced c- 1 ; : ■ ' : - 
date, cannot be mistaken, and should not be mil un terstood:, even 
by his Lieutenants. 

It is an imperious duty they owe to the party to frankly in- 
form Mr. Van Buren of the niter hopelessness of his ease. — 
They know it. 1 would blush for my country, to suppose an in- 
dividual member of the Congress now lure assembled at the < !ap- 
ttal so ign< rani of passing i stents, and the genius of the Ameri- 
can people, as to believe that they themselves will reverse their 
otvn marked unqualified intended condemnation, and now elect 
the man they so si verelj n buked in I84G, by a majority of one 
hundred and fifty thousand. Are these men going deliberately 
to'say by their own acts now that they were then wrong in that 
over which they (hen so mm h exulted and thus admit that their 
•ouse.i were bewildered and entranced by hard cider and log cab- 



ins, and that their great victory was a magnificent humbug ? — > 
No, not one of them. Pride and pride of opinion has too rank a 
hold in the heart of every American Freeman thus to act. We 
could not then convince them, against their will if you please, 
and believe me, it has not been subdued by such an unexampled 
triumph. Mv views of human nature, and the composition of 
man would lead me to a conclusion directly the reverse, and that 
they would again rush to the contest with redoubled energy, 
flushed with their former unparalleled success, having broken the 
charm of the magician and paralyzed his wonder working powers. 
His very defeat will lose him thousands who can go into the 
field with any confidence of success under a captain having been 
so badly beaten and one that was never beloved by the rank and 
file, and in a contest where superior numbers are indispensable : 
where a Spartan band will not answer however brave they may be. 
Supposing by the force of circumstances that we cannot control, 
the contest is narrowed down between him and Henry Clay, and 
we take the field for him as by compulsion, how should we feel 
towards him when we look back to his machine operations by 
which he had packed his convention and compelled us to choose 
as between imprisonment for life and capital punishment. When 
we recollected his ingratitude in being even willing again to haz- 
ard all the high hopes of a party who had done so much for him 
and jeopardize the dearest interest of a people who had raised him 
from poverty to affluence, and when we recollect where he left asf 
overwhelmed with defeat that had carried dismay to our boldest 
leaders, wounded, bleeding on the mighty battle field, and he 
quietly retiring to his Tuilfivies, without even the hope of ever 
curing our wounds and concentrating our scattered elements of 
strength when ail was enshrouded in gloom, and there appeared 
fot us no salvation from all the high handed aristocratic meas- 
' ures our federal opponents had been striving to fasten upon us from 
the formation of our government, and bring to mind that the 
chivalrous patriot who threw himself into the frightful breach, 
and with more than mortal eneigy »aised our party from its pros- 
trate condition, restored confidence and hope in the breast of ev- 
ery true freeman and by one lofty act did more real service to this 
nation than any man since Washington, remains unpaid the deep 
debt of grstitude this people owe him; remains unrewarded for 
the services no other man could have performed for this nation, 
snd that wc are aiding the very man who would have brought all 
these national calamities upon us, to rob the one who averted thein 
all of the laurels he so richly merits. What honest heart can 
engage in such a cause under such ciicumstances ? 

The history of these events is still fresh in the minds of all. — 
Gen. Harrison was sworn into office, took the Presidential chair, 
and in one short month died, an event unlookcd for by the lead- 
ing, spirits in the memorable campaign of 1840. The extra ses- 



8 

sion had been previously called, Congress assembled and a bank 
bill was at once forced through both houses, although it was well 
known that President Tyler had been committed in eternal hos- 
tility to a national bank from his first entrance into public life, 
having been nominated to secure anti-bank votes, and it being 
well understood that he never breathed a federal breath, and that 
the truest principles of Democracy were inbred in his very na- 
ture. Will he not veto that bank bill, said a fnend to the Ken- 
tucky Orator, as you know be was always opposed to a United 

States Bank ? He would if he dare G d D n him, was 

the pious reply. All eyes were now turned towards the only man 
that could save us, with intense anxiety, impatiently awaiting the 
grand move that would exert such a controlling influence upon 
our future destinies. All were in trembJing anxiety ; but John 
Tyler hesitated not, faltered not, but proved himself a true son 
of the old dominion, well worthy of the noble state which gave 
him birth ; well deserving to have his name inscribed upon the 
scroll of immortality with her Washington and her Jefferson. 

He did dare veto the Bank, Henry Clay to the contrary not- 
withstanding, and one universal burst of applause went forth 
from the whole democratic party throughout the union : the 
thunder of their cannon was heard on every hill and in every val- 
ley, his name quivered on every lip with deep and heart-felt gra- 
titude to their deliverer, and the entire democratic press vied with 
each other lor terms in which to express their admiration of their 
great public benefactor. Even the old hero at the Hermitage 
thanked his God that one honest man still remained: that the 
constitution was safe and once more in the hands of the people. 
Had an organization now commenced, and had there been action 
and concert of action in favor of the noble author of the vetoes, 
he would have distanced all competition, and have been wafted 
into the presidential chaii upon the br< eze of the most decided 
and well deserved popularity. 

But he was surrounded by difficulties such as no other Ame- 
rican. president ever had to encounter. The federal cabinet of 
Gen. Harrison all resigned save Daniel Webster, whose princi- 
ples of all other incii were most, diametrically opposed to those 
of the president. The' one, a frank, open hearted democrat, 
nurtured under the shade of Montecello, having long drank deep 
from the pure fountains of Virginia politics. 

The other a New Eugland Federalist, nol early rocked in the 
cradle of libertj of the Hartford Convention school, who re- 
joiced at the success of our enemies, the defeat of our arms and 
the disgrace of our policy during the darkest and gloomiesl pe- 
riod of our country's history. He 

did not resign, In was not solicited to stay, what was to be done. 
Would it not have seemed unkind at that time to have dismissed 
him from the cabinet inasmuch as he had seen no cause for re- 



signing, and took pait with the President against his calumnia- 
tors who had resigned, and by his acts justified the president and 
flatly gave the lie to their assertion. 

It was not in the heart of John Tyler under such circumstan- 
ces, to thrust a man of his acknowledged talent out of his cabi- 
net. It was no sin in the eyes of the nation for Gen. Washing- 
ton to retain Alexander Hamilton in his cabinet the whole time 
of his eight years administration, the very father and embodiment 
of ancient federalism, or for Mr. Jefferson to call federalists to 
his councils and send Gen. Pinckney and J. Q. Adams to for- 
eign missions, and that too after the latter had written those scur- 
rilous, doggrel versesdefamatory of the great father of our party : 
nor for Gen. Jackson to advise Mr. Munro to select his cabinet 
equally from both parties, and appoint after he attained the pre- 
sidency himself, Edward Livingston to his own cabinet, and en- 
dorse his proclamation, which he afterwards repudiated ; to say 
nothing of Martin Van Buren procuring the appointment of Ru- 
fus King to the United States Senate, the .tankest federalist then 
to be foujid in the Empire State. The very man, who, when 
minister to London might have saved from the scaffold the la- 
mented and highly gifted Robert Emmet, but whose democracy- 
was too pure and elevated to find in his bosom a friend and 
through him a refuge in this asylnmn of the oppressed. 

Perhaps some of the Simon pure democrats, high in the con- 
fidence and foremost itt their support of Mr. Van Buren, had 
better not make the retention of Mr. Webster in the cabinet a 
very serious charge against the president till they recollect what 
part they themselves acted with the Hartford Convention move- 
ments of the last war. Facts arc stubborn things, and the re- 
membrance of them often very convenient ; even Martin Van 
Buren voted with Daniel Webster, and the party who believed it 
unbecoming a moral and religious people to rejoice at our victo- 
ries at one of the darkest moments of that war, when the surren- 
der of Hull and the butchery at Rasin had thrown the whole 
nation into consternation and mourning. Is it not sufficient up- 
on this point to say that the Secretaryship of state is now filled 
by the Hon. John C. Calhoun, the pure and chivalrous Caioli- 
naian, who has no superior ; the immortal author of the report 
in Congress in favor of vindicating the honor of the nation by 
declaring that same war so shamefully opposed by Daniel Web- 
ster — snd as we have said in our resolutions, "The free institu- 
tions our fathers bled and suffered to establish and perpetuate, 
are safe — doubly safe in the hands of men of such elevated mo- 
rality and power of intellect as John Tyler and John C. Cal- 
houn." 

And when has every department of state been more ably and 
economically administered ? When has a more brilliant cabinet 
shed lustre upon the American name, and in whom the whole 



10 

nation had a more abiding confidence ? And when has the 
chief magistrate himself exhibited more firmness, more ability, 
more patriotism and more self-devotion to the common country 
than the pure and elevated statesman now in the presidential 
chair? With such a patriot at the helm, surrounded by a con- 
stellation of stars of the very first magnitude, I again say, every 
lover of his country feels secure in the safety of the precious in- 
heritance bequeathed us by our revolutionary fathers. 

Then let us rally around the veto standard not doubting. Let 
every friend of the administration come up quickly to the rescue, 
and justice will now be done to the man so vilified and abused by 
the ultras of both parties ; who has braved their fury, and under 
the most trying circumstances so ably borne the weight of the 
government of this proud, complex and powerful confederacy. 
And what prevents justice being now done, and rendering honor 
to whom honor is due at the ensuing contest. Nought but that 
Mr. Van Buien was unfairly defeated in 1840, that unfairn means 
were used against him, and that he was sung out of favor. Let 
us look at it. Where is the man who is ready thus tojleliberate- 
ly slander the institutions under which he lives? Can the ma- 
jority in tliis free, intelligent country be swayed by wrong mo- 
tives? We deny it entirely — if the vote of this nation constitu- 
tionally expressed, is not to be regarded as right, what becomes 
of the essential feature of our government ; that feature is, that 
the majority is always right. Who dates to dispute this? Let 
it be our settled action that we may impeach the act of the ma- 
jority — that we may say that songs and cider influenced a large 
portion of a free people, and therefore, that they, we, decided 
wrong, and that it must be tried over, and where shall we find 
ourselves? By abandoning principle we shall become the spoil 
of tyrants an I well worthy of the anarchy we shall bring 
upon the country. We think that those who take this giound 
in favor of Mr. Van 15 men, have not well reflected upon what an 
unkind attack they an- thus making upon their country. He 
himself, in his letter to Pennsylvania followed the argument and 
intimated that he was wrongfully defeated. Betterthat he should 
be ten thousand limes defeated than to admit that ought else but 
the highest patriotism influences the majority of this nation when 
through the ballot box it decides mi men and measures. We 
are ashamed for our country to see such a reason given. Re- 
nominate a man because he is unfairly beaten, when nineteen 
states by their deliberate votes pronounce their severe rebuke up- 
on him. It is as absurd as the idea of the lunatic who claimed 
to be entirely sane, and that all the rest of the world were insane, 
and had therefore shut him up. Where is this matter to end ? 
If it is good reason in favor of one man beaten to-day, it is equal- 
ly good against him to-morrow. Indeed the whole thing would 
seem to proceed upon the rediculous theory that there was a 



11 

floating corrupt mass of voters in this country who in 1840, vo- 
ted against Mr. Van Buren ; but that in 1844 they may be iu his 
favor. Then would it not be said with equal force that he un- 
fairly succeeded. Thus we should be continually playing for 
this corrupt, mass. It is a gross absurdity, a vile slander upon 
our country, and if deliberately urged, the individual doing so 
furnishes evidence of his own corruptibility. No, the majority 
of this nation is always honest, always right, and ought always to 
be respected. 

Mr. Van Buren came into power, not upon his own popularity. 
Gen. Jackson, honest, energetic and able, established his admin- 
istration so strong in the confidence of the nation, that his suc- 
cessor easily floated into his place. But the old Roman was n 
longer at the helm, and after a brief trial the most decided ma- 
jority that ever displaced an individual from the presidency, re- 
buked his successor. I claim to be too true to our institu- 
tions not to understand this; too much of a democrat to speak 
trifiingly of the act of the majority, and too well convinced that 
the people intended what they did again, by my own act, to in- 
volve my fortunes with the same unsuccessful candidate. 

He can never again be thrust down the throats of the people 
of this country. The entire democracy will not vote for him. — 
Thousands who supported him in 1840, prefer even Henry Clay 
wilh all his political errors, to Martin Van Buren, and his ma- 
chine polities ; thinking that the element of reform may be found 
iu the former, but never in the latter; and show me the individ- 
ual convert in his favor since his defeat. Go down he must, there 
is no hope for him. The tremendous overturn in Maryland, the 
proceedings of the New Jersey convention, the aspect of affairs 
in Pennsylvania and Virginia, the acceptance of Mr. Calhoun to 
the Secretaryship of state, are omens of no ordinary magnitude, 
and the signs of the times throughout the union are poitentious 
of his falling fortunes. 

His name every where falls like an icicle upon the heart of the 
true democrat ; Why bring him forward again when it will be a 
suicidal act to nominate him'.' And what real friend of his coun- 
try will regret his being rejected by his own convention when 
they recollect the circumstances attending its origin ? and if meu 
of his own choice throw him overboard as they must, or destroy 
themselves by their own acts, and perish in the general wreck, 
let him go down, for with him goes down forever that odious sys- 
tem of party tactics by which he has so long controlled the poli- 
tics of the country, and so often defeated the will of the rightful 
sovereigns. Why will he not at once decline and not persist in 
his reckless determination to again prostrate a party who have 
done so much for him? Has he no gratitude, no magniuimity ? 
Is he entirely destitute of all those fine and tendei qualities ^en- 



12 

erally found in the composition of man ? Or has a sordid Jove of 
profit and powei frozen up every warm aud liberal feeling of his 
nature ? If not, why, when he must be convinced, for it cannot 
be otherwise, not come out and decline a nomination, and thus 
do one disinterested act in his life, and for which, if for no other, 
he will be gratefully remembered by the present and succeeding 
generations, and thus magnanimously surrender the entire field 
to the man who so completely resuscitated the democratic party, 
and raised it from the prostrate condition to which Mr. Van Bu- 
ren had reduced it in the brief period of his four years adminis- 
tration. 

Is this language too plain when we recollect that we too must 
fall with this man ? should he be the exclusive democratic candi- 
date, and be entombed in the same Van Buren grave with himself, 
that by running him all the (air prospects of this great people for 
the next half century, and perhaps in all time to come are to be 
jeopardized, and for what ? to heap honors and wealth upon the 
in.gra.Le this same people warmed into life and raised from obscu- 
rity'to the most exalted station on earth. For should he again 
drag us down, and Henry Clay succeed and die as Harrison did, 
should we have another pure and fearless John Tyler to save us, 
to breast the torrent of federal fury, and with giant nerve to seize 
and strangle the foul born monster. No! for there are few such 
fearless spirits calendered io the history of this republic, and how 
can this free people ever pay the immense debt of gratitude they 
owe the patriot who threw himself into the frightful breach and 
saved the republic from the curse and blight of half a century 
which the odious bank would have entailed upon us. Does jus- 
tice sleep ? do is he not still hold the scale that ever metes out 
to the patriot a sure reward for his services to a free people 1 
Where slumbers thai spirit which so triumphantly vindicated the 
brave defender of New Orleans? It slumbers not— 1 know by the 
feelings which promp I you here to assemble, which now ani- 
mates your bosoms, that the friends you left at their respective 
homes in ev r. I our union, are at this very moment giv- 

ing vent to tho ■ of gratitude to their great public bene- 

factor, no lor to be stifled by the rudeness of Clay dema- 
gogues, nor pent up by the complicated machinery of Van Bu- 
rec l igerdeinain. 

Tin pei pie will do the work. The sovereigns will speak for 
themselves, and in a voice not to be misunderstood. Mr. Van 
Buren can no more smother their feelings now than in 1S24, 
when he was abusing in the most wanton and unmeasured terms 
the exalted patriot who terminated the late war in a blaze of glo- 
ry. At no period io the history of our republic has the tone of 
public sentiment been more firm and decided in its determination 
to vindicate a persecuted patriot than at present, for the motto 
th.it justice must i ( w be done to John Tyler, i6 ringing with one 



13 

accordant voice from one extremity of this land to the other, and 
from what I know of the people of this country, of their virtues 
and their patriotism, it would be no strange event in my mind to 
see him triumphantly elected at the ensuing contest, over both 
Henry Clay and Martin V;in Buren. The same feeling which 
swelled in their bosoms and impelled them to action in favor of 
Gen Jackson, is bursting forth in favor of President Tyler. The 
chivalrous south are coming to the rescue, and loudly demand- 
ing justice, which is responded to by the middle states in thun- 
der tones. The mighty west is all in motion, and the elements of 
strength are fast concentrating at the great north, where the same 
sentiments that now animate your speaker pervade the breast 
of every true democrat. And in my own, my native Empire 
State, they are determined to do him that justice by electing him 
in '44, for his two bank vetoes, that they did to Andrew Jackson 
when he was so triumphantly re-elected for his one bank veto in 
'32. Depend upon it, Mr. Van Buren can do no better in his 
own stale than he did in 1840. His defeat is as sure as fate itself 
if he is the candidate ; but with John Tyler, success will most 
triumphantly crown our efforts. They who know with what rap- 
tures of applause his name is now received by the democracy of 
the country, cannot but come to the same conclusion ; and he 
who thinks different, has not well reflected upon the subject, and 
little understands the feelings of the people in regard to the re- 
spective merits of the two individual candidates. Could they 
hear in every corner of the streets, and in every public place, on 
our rail ways and in our steamboats, on our farms and in our 
workshops, the every day language of the honest farmer, me- 
chanic, and tradesmen, they who doubt would be convinced, if 
proofs of any kind could produce conviction of the growing feel- 
ing for the president, & that Van Buren's chance is utterly hope- 
less. " What, have we got to take this man again and undertake 
to carry a load that will surely drag us down? Who that voted 
against him before will support him now ? Scarce an individual 
can be found, for you know he was never beloved by the people, 
an.l he rode into power upon the broad shoulders of the old hero 
in L-i:3(i ; and in 1840 it was the hatred of the man and his lead- 
ing measure that produced our marked defeat, and nothing has 
transpired to change any man's opinion in his favor; and in eve- 
ry opponent who fought him before with that settled and deadly 
hatred he will again find an enemy (lushed with his former suc- 
cess, rushing to the conflict with keener vengeance and redoubled 
vigor, carrying with him in thousands of instances his neighbors 
and his friends, and tens of thousands of the young democracy 
who have subsequently become voters, will not involve their for- 
tunes with this unsuccessful, distanced, and now hopeless can- 
didate. 

And what hind of democracy is it, to keep this selfish man iv 
office for life, to the exclusion of his superiors ? Why should 
he be kept ahead of Silas Wright, vastly more talented, and hon- 
est into the bargain, and whose opinions are always open, Irani. 

B 



14 

and decided, upon the great questions of state policy ? And who 
knows where Mr. VanBiiren is at this very moment, and how he 
would act upon the tariff question, the slave question, the Texas 
and Oregon questions. Some say that he will come out in favor 
of the re-annexation of the valuable region of territory which 
John Quincy Adams clandestinely surrendered to Spain, as will 
be seen by the letter of Gen. Jackson, recently published ? If he 
does, it will be certain that he has changed his mind for selfish 
and sordid purposes, as it will be recollected that when President 
he dictated a letter of Mr. Forsyth, who was in fivor of the 
measure, rejecting the overtures by which we might long since 
have been in the possession of this our rightful territory. 

Do you not recollect that he opposed James Madison during 
the last war, and then suddenly turned round to the support of 
him and the war; that he opposed the Erie Canal till he thought 
it would go through in spite of him, and all at once became a con- 
vert and made a speech in the New York Senate in its favor; 
and then did not Van Buren and his legislature attempt to rob 
De Wilt Clinton of his justly merited honor by shamefully turn- 
ing him out of the office of Canal Commissioner, when his great 
work was in triumphant and successful progress. Western and 
Central N. York can never forget his cold blooded stabs, through 
life, of the great father of internal improvement, and of being 
tempted to envy him his grave with its honors. And why, con- 
tinues the honest democrat, have we so long supported him? 
For the same reason that we may be compelled iu again — his in- 
fernal political machinery, which has ever forced us into a choico 
of evils. 

We knew that he was cold, callous and unprincipled, and had no 
fellow feeling with us ; that he pretended to be in favor of the 
extension of the right of suffrage at the formation of our new 
constitution; and in 1824 used tin' basest means to prevent the 
choice of Presidential Electors from being taken from the legis- 
lature and given to the people, for which he a id his seventeen 
automata Senators vvese SO suddenly and so signally rebuked by 
the Sovereigns. We know that he then came oul and supported 
the disti ict system, and afterwards opposed it ; thai he has been 
both for and against the general tieket system, and we know too 
for what base purposes. We remember his opposition to the 
election of Justices by the people, and also of being In favor of it ; 
that he was in favor of a United Slates Bank, and signed petitions 
lo have branches established in New- York, and of his subsequent 
opposition. We know him to have been an abolitionist in every 
sense of the word a: the time of the admission of Missouri, and 
remember hig uncalled for anticipated veto in his inaugural ad- 
dress of any bill to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia* 
without the COns&Ql of the slave Slates, and ih it he is now court- 
ing abolition votes at the north as his only hope there, while he 
Is holding out to the south th tl he is in favor of southern meas- 
ures and southern prim iples. Who does not remember his vote 
for the black tariff of 1828, and his recent letter lo Virginia, iu 



15 

which he declares his decided opposition to the piesent tariff in 
its principle and its details. We know all this, and aye. more; 
we well recollect him as one of the most violent opposers of the 
brave defender of the beanty and the booty of our great southern 
emporium, and with his leading organs, called General Jackson 
blood thirsty and tyrannical in 1824, and in 1828 became one of 
his warm supporters — wormed himself into the confidence of the 
old Roman — became a member of his cabinet, and subsequently 
his successor, upon the wave of his decided popularity, from 
which, after a brief trial, he was so signally displaced — when even 
Gen. Jackson could not avert the blow, for it was aimed by the 
people. 

And now again we must shoulder such a load, and thus hazard 
all our fair hopes of the ultimate triumph of democratic princi- 
ples. The deep game that was played in New York state last 
year, we fear will reduce us to the alternative of again voting for 
a man whom we never loved, and who has been on all sides of all 
questions, or of voting for Henry Clay and his mammoth Bank, 
which we cannot do; though we had about as williugly see him 
elected as rhe little magician. The way too, they cheated the 
people about the Syracuse Convention, is sufficient of itself to 
justify all true democrats to oppose Mr. Van Buren's nomination. 
See how deep the game. In the primary assemblies the district 
system was yielded, as also by the leading Van Buren presses; 
yet a short time before the Convention was held, and after the 
delegates were chosen, the terrors of excommunication were held 
over those who dared to act for themselves. The consequence 
was, that when more than half of the delegates assembled at the 
convention, had been instructed or had agreed to snpport the dis- 
trict systems only a small portion of them voted for it, the rest 
being whipped into the traces by the long lash of the retired 
state man. The evasive manner in which the convention had 
been called, caused the people to instruct a majority of the dele- 
gates, or to choose those who had expressed their decided pre- 
ference in favor of the district system ; and we little suspected 
that so long before the convention that delegates would thus be 
clandestinely appointed, as there had been nothing of the kind in 
the call ; nothing to arouse the people, who were not told in a 
bold and manly stye that the object was to appoint delegates to 
the Baltimore Convention, and that the whole democracy should 
convene in their primary assemblies, as the important question 
was to be decided who for four years should wield the destinies 
of twenty millions of freemen, with great diversities of interest, 
and the most complicated government on earth. We were de- 
ceived and cheated, and we ought not to submit. Language 
like this is as common as the water that runs — amcng democrats 
who want no office, go where you will. They feel insulted at the 
attempt to compel them to support a man they never did nor nev- 
er can love. Did we admire Mr. Van Buren, and wish his eleva- 
tion, we should still oppose his nomination upon the "principle 
that Brutus opposed Cesar,— not that he loved Cesar less, but 



. 16 

"lirti he loved Rome more. Claiming that I love my country and 
ner free institutions better than any man who would hazard all 
upon the chance throw of an unsuccessful political gambler, I 
call upon every honest man to oppose him upon the same princi- 
ple, with all their mind, might and strength, and to use all hon- 
orable means to procure the nomination of the patriot to whom 
the nation is so deeply indebted. 

Will the untrammelled, high minded democracy of this great 
Union, permit this chance throw, this fatal move, for so it will 
prove, so sure as made, and stake all upon one dangerous exper- 
iment, one suicidal act ? If for nothing else, f would admire 
Mr. Van Buren for his moral courage, after being thus distanced, 
to enter the field against .such fearful odds, but I believe it too 
dignified a term, and that it is obstinacy and stupidity, not only 
in him, but in all who urge him on to certain and inevitable de- 
feat, with a reckless determination to bring all down with him, 
and again prostrate, nearly annihilate those who have done so 
much for him, and still adhere to his falling furtunes. I would 
fain believe him ignorant of the fact that he must be defeated, 
for I would not think him so morally depraved, as wilfully and 
knowingly again to bring such calamities upcn his friends and 
his country. 

Where is he to look for any accession of strengh ? Is it to 
be found in the enthusiasm of the people ? Who welcomes the 
return of the fallen chief from his exile ? Who invited it ? 
Who asked him from his political Elba to which the majesty of a 
great people had banished him, up to Albany to procure the still 
born legislative nomination he so coldly received 1 Not one of 
the people ! 

Who packed his Syracuse convention to forestal public opinion 
in other states ? The people knew not. nor suspected not, for 
what that convention was called. Who began the caucus move- 
ment in Missouri, and who did not see in that the finger of 
the successor to the restored, should a restoration take place ? 
With the elevation of the exited chief, will be the restoration of 
the old dynasty, and the continuance in office for life of many of 
the most obnoxious individuals in the land. Who wants either ? 
Do the people? 

Should he be restored, who would be his advisers and the dis- 
pensers of his favors ? The same old set of political paupers, 
incumba upon the body politic, destitute of common honesty, 
without principle of any kind, or one of the finer attributes of 
man, and what has the young, ardent and intelligent democracy 
to gain by his re-elevation to power, when only those are to bo 
rewarded who are destitute of merit, and have always lived by 
hanging on the skirts of this same aspiring politician. Men who 
have never originated a single improvement, or advanced any 
useful measure ; who in the conflicts of professional exertion, 
in open manly controversy, could not sustain themselves a sin- 
gle hour against the mass of intellect by which they are sur- 
rounded, and incapable of entering into business of any kind with 



•uccess, who know nothing of the people, of their wants and 
their feelings, and care as little. These are the men who 
would welcome his return, because they too return with him, 
political Jesuits, the same by whom we had so long been oppress- 
ed, the same that caused that outburst of public indignation, 
that could no longer be smothered in 18 If), and that will pro- 
duce a still more disastrous result, if the attempt is made at Bal- 
timore to force him upon the party. Show me any other class 
of citizens that want him ' They are not *o be found ! 

When principles are to be discussed, when right opinion is 
to be formed, when the essentials of a democratic faith are to 
be canvassed, we speak of the action of the people in their pri- 
mary assemblies, and of submitting to them all such questions, 
and of following the indications of popular sentiment. Has this 
been doue ? Who wants to hear the name of the rejectct the re- 
buked, of the h'gh tribunal of the American sovereigns ao-a ; n fall 
upon their ear? Does it not fall harsely ? What untrammell- 
ed, intelligent, unprejudiced, honest democrat, would save him 
by his casting vote? 

"Who cries- vive le Empereur ?" Is it heard among the rank 
and file, where is the love, the attachment that was feltfor Na- 
poleon on his return from Elba ? When he first set his feet 
upon the soil of his own dear France, unbared his bosom to his 
old companions in arms and asked them to fire upon their Em- 
peror, when the cry of "Vive le Empereur"rang with one accord- 
ant voice from rank to rank, in tones long, loud and heart-felt by 
the old heroes of an hundred battles. Had the democracy been 
smothering such feelings for their fallen chief, there would have 
been no conventions packed, no Missouri movement, no legisla- 
tive caucuses years before the election, to forestal public opinion 
and coerce the support of the democracy; but unfortunately 
for the hero of the Florida war, and the exile to "Lindenwald," 
none welcomes his return, there is no feeling of enthusiasm, 
no ardent attachment, but a coolness, indifference, ami want of 
confidence in his best friends, while three-fourths of the entire 
democracy are opposed to his nomination under any circumstan- 
ces. Previous to 1340, the democracy had triumphed all over 
the Union, and the result of that campaign with Mr. Van Buren 
to headend run behind the ticket every where, is well known, but 
mark, the very next year when his enormous weight was ofFou* 
shoulders, the demociacy again triumphed, and each successive 
contest added triumph to triumph, till the people saw the gullo- 
tine in operation, by which one favorite candidate after another 
was beheaded to make way for the arch magician, till they saw 
his leading organ here at the Capital irom the warmest praise 
and highest enlogums of the choice candidate whom the people- 
would now delight to honor, levelling all the envenomed shafts 
of malignity, barbed and poisoned, at the head of him whom it a 
few short months before had applauded as the great benefactor of 
his country, and again mark the results, nothing but defeat and 
disaster has been the consequence, which has carried dismay to 

B2 



18 

the heart of every true democrat, and pain ed the breast of the 
patriot all over our Union. During which time too, our common 
country had regained its long lost vigor, and was marching 
right onward in the high road of improvement, prosperity and 
happiness, under the present auspicious administration, which is 
truly the augustan age ol our democracy. 

The people were painel to see such a president, and such an 
administration so wantonly slandered by the organ they had en- 
riched by their munificence, of the candidate for whom they had 
already done sufficient to satisfy the ambition of any man, and 
give glory to any name. Mr. Van Buren can never know the 
injury nor the loss of friends this vile course has caused him. 
The remembrance of eveiy blow thus aimed, and every wound 
thus inflicted upon the honest patriot who had just saved them, 
is treasured up in the minds of this great people, who can never 
forgive the cold, callous hearted demagogue, who could have 
prompted or even permitted his leading organs thus wantonly to 
vilify the man to whom they, Van Buren, Benton, Blair and all, 
had just acknowledged themselves and the nation so deeply in- 
debted. Tis no excuse for the friends of the Kindcrhook poli- 
tician to say it was unauthorized. Who will believe it 1 How 
easy might he have denounced, if he could not have controlled 
their cours- , and thus saved and gained tens of thousands of 
friends ? But it was concerted and simultaneous, the Globe at 
Washington, the Atlas at Albany, and Mr. Benton's organ in 
Missouri, the Plebean in New York, all about the same time 
commenced their unkind attacks. They saw the growing af- 
fections of the democracy who were preparing to rally around 
the veto candidate with an enthusiasm felt for no other man. 
They saw the restoration, and the succession, both in danger, 
and the growing love of the people fdr the president strengthen- 
ing by every act of his virtuous administration, must be suppress- 
ed" the tide rolled back, or all would be swept away, an, I the 
rightful soverri«rns would (lestror ail their party engines, with 
the same tenacity that the populace of revolutionary France de- 
molished their ancient Bastile. Tia no excuse that the Albany 
Argus, and the more elevated of the democratic presses did not 
follow in the wake and also calumniate the president, no umro 
than that the people themselve* wore shocked at the moral serrso 
of such profligacy, and are determined, when possible, to re- 
dress the wrong. A people who never did nor never will see the 
injuries of their patriots and their statesmen go unavenged, who 
with your speaker and yourselves, I know by the emotions which 
now swell yo.tr bosoms, will nev*r relax their energies, will 
never cease their untiring exertions, till his wrongs are meet 
fully redressed, and the most ample justice done, net only for 
his vetoes, but his most wiae, politic and pfroapcrous- administra- 
tion of the affairs of tins complex gov*rnme»*. 

What stands in the way of rendering thi* loudly called fof 
honor and jnstice where it is so richly due to th« patriot, who bf- 
ene bold stroke of policy, saved us from the blighting inriueno# 



I 



19 

of an institution, more to be dreaded in this republic, than would 
have been the armies of Napoleon in the proudest days of his 
imperial power? Why say some of the president's warmest and 
most ardent, friends, it is contrary to usage to support a candi- 
date not regularly nominate.! ? ' Regularly nominated, let any 
man whose intellect can make him understand why two and two 
make four, read Mr. Calhoun's letter on this subject, and then 
eay that he cannot support a man that is not regularly nomi- 
nated by the Van Buren system of New York political machinery, 
eaid to have originated in the brain of Aaron Burr. Contrary to 
•Usage! It was once contrary to usage for common people to 
read ; It is now in some of the Catholic courtries for all but. the 
priests to read the bible. Conventions were formerly contrary 
to usaflfe, and legislative caucuses nominated our presidents and 
governors, but the popularity of the old hero decapitated thia 
oliticad 'lydra, and conventions succeeded, which, if possible, 
ave become still more corrupt, in their formation. But revolu- 
tions never go backwards. .Since tb.3 people of this country 
threw off the yoke of foreign domination, many changes have 
taken place in the moral and political world : mighty convulsions 
have shaken the thrones of Europe; the American resolution, 
and the splendid career of Napoleon, have produced a new era in 
the policies of nations, and the history of man. The serf is 
fast rising from his vas^alla«-e on one side of the Atlantic, while 
on the other the sovereignty of the people is no longer a chi- 
mera of the irnaoination, but a rational principle of truth, now 
deeply engrafted in the minds of all. And who of us is longer 
willing- to be chained to the car ofa political tyrant, and sponta- 
neonslv prostrate ourselves at the footstool ofa despotism as un- 
bending as that of theRossian Autocrat. 

Can such men as I see here around me, longer submit to such 
an odious svstem of perfected political despotism, in which tho 
elements of reform are never to be found ? No, no ! I hear from 
every quarter of this larjre assembly, and will it not be respond- 
ed bv your political friends in every rpiarter of this great nation ? 
Ajrain it is said by s.mie who admire, and would fain support 
the president, that he ran upon the whig ticken in 1340. True, 
and what democrat does not thank his stars that he did so run, 
whereby the party and the country have been saved. Who cl99 
would have done it ? Who else possessed the moral courage to 
have done the noble deed, surrounded as he was by such despe- 
rate and infuriated partisans ? Th.rt he run upon the whig ticket 
in 1840, and was elected by sn unparalleled majority of the free 
people of this country, no cue will deny. Tnat he could not 
have been elected but for the rotes of hundreds of thousands of 
democrats must also be admitted ; for vhe» the party unite 
find rally upon a popular candidate, the democracy can giveae 
large a majority as the one hundred and fifty thousand by which 
they were then defeated, and yet he was elected by such demo- 
cratic states aa New York and Pennsylvania, the empire and tho 
Keystone, either capable of giving 20,000 majority for an honest 



20 

popular candidate in whom the entire democracy have con6- 
dence. 

He run as an anti-bank candidate, and as such received the 
votes of about three-fourths of the states, mostly democratic, and 
all which have given democratic majorities. It was at the time 
more of a contest between democrats than otherwise, the whigs 
said that they did not wish nor expect a bank, that John Tyler 
ever had and still was decidedly opposed to ore of any kind, 
which the old republican party knew to be true, and therefore 
elected him as he must have been by democratic votes. But 
he did not subscribe to the proclamation of Gen. Jackson, and 
the sub-treasury of Mr. Van Buren ; what democrat did to the 
former, which was afterwards repudiated by the old hero himself, 
and what portion of the democracy on its first promulgation to 
the latter, and which was also so signally repudiated by the 
people. Upon these questions and all others, John Tyler had a 
right to form his own opinion, and he responsible for his own 
acts in common with every citizen of the republic, and if those 
opinions and those acts were democratic, though in opposition 
to any man, his democracy should not be questioned. "To err, 
is human," and even arch angels fell. 

Gen. Jackson, great in the field, great in the cabinet, true every 
where, yet might be mistaken, was mistaken, and after 
magnanimously admitting his mistake, condemn not the man 
who was right, for being right, and having the independence to 
proclaim it, although in opposition to a name which carried all 
before it. Rather admire him for his wisdom and his boldness. 
Because Gen. Washington believed a United States Bank to bo 
constitutional, and the Supreme Court have so decided, yet the 
American people have a right to think different, to investigate 
and arrive nt the truth. Investigation is the spirit of the age, 
and for one man's opinion however great, be law, without 
appeal to the great tribunal of the people, would be contrary to 
the genius of our free institutions. 

Whose course through thirty years of public service, has been 
more truly democratic than that of the president, and the purity 
of whose private life has never been assailed. During the excit- 
ing campaign of 1340, 1 never heard the most ingenious and un- 
scrupulous orator aim a shaft at him, hnowing that he was in- 
vulnerable, and that it would fall blunted and broken by the in- 
vincible dignity of hi.-: character. 

No man supported (Jen. Jackson more firmly than the individ- 
ual now addressing you, commencing in 1824, when he was 
Utile talked of in my native Slate, and continuing even up to his 
farewell address, and with his successor long after bis defeat in 
18*0, and until he, through his organs, commenced his wanton 
attack upon the man who nov> fills the presidential chair, in a 
manner that commands admiration at home, and respect abroad ; 
vet I was never, that man worshiper that would make me chain 
mvscli to the '•.)]■ of any chieftain, and prevent me from app ov- 
ing what was right, and also condemning what was wrong ; 



21 

the* jfore when I saw the independence of any man in pursuing 
the same course, I knew how to appreciate and approve it. 
What in one man will be approved, in another will be condemned, 
in every age and nation, owing to the fictitious advantages of 
birth, rank or fortune. Success vindicates the adoption of al- 
most every measure, is another axiom which every freeman 
should well study and reflect upon. When Lord Nf?lson at the 
Bombardment of Copenhagen, put his telescope to his blind eye 
and sa".l that he could not see the signal of 6'ir Hyde Parker, he 
did it as with a halter around his neck, but success crowned his 
bravery and victory perched upon his banner, and he was hailed 
as a nation's hero and benefactor. The great character and 
great success of Gen. Jackson made all his measures popular 
with a people by whom, he was beloved, and who doubts that with 
hiui the sub-treasury would have been popular, while with his 
successor it was most signally condemned. From these reflec- 
tions we are to learn that although the majority must be re- 
garded as right, being the essential feature in a free government, 
yet we see how easy it is for the purest democrats to arrive at 
different conclusions, and that altho' President Tyler differed in 
some things with Gen. Jackson, it is no better reason for ques- 
tioning his democracy, than it would nave been to have doubted 
Thomas Jefferson's because he differed with Gen Washington 
in regard to the original charter of th" old United States B ink. 
What man in the nation is more purely democratic than the 
President, and has done more to sustain democratic principles, 
and deserves more from the democratic party ? From very ear- 
ly life we see him ardently enlisted in the support of the war of 
1812, and while in the Virginia legislature, often caused the hal- 
lowed halls of the Old Dominion, to ring with an eloquence the 
most fervid and convincing in favor of the most energetic mea- 
sures for defending the country from Brittish ao-gression. Not 
content, with that, we see him raising a company of militia and 
putting- himself at its head, being willing to shed his blood in the 
cause he had so arcently espoused, and for which unpatriotic act, 
his enemies who were principally opposed to that war, an. I en- 
gaged in burning blue lights, now in dension call him Captain 
Tyler, after having by a life of virtue and patriotism attained the 
presidential chair. Tis not. wondrous strange that he should 
now have such opponents. Even previous to this, in 1811, when 
he had scarcely reached his majority, we se him commence that 
war upon the United States Bank, which he so fearlessly contin- 
ued till he terminated it in glory at the memorable session of 
1841, a period of 30 years. With that early attack on the bank 
was involved the question of the right of instruction, another im- 
portant democratic principle, Mr. Tyler being the author of the 
resolution censuring their U.S. senators for disobeying the in- 
struction'of theVirgin'a legislature to vote against the chartering 
of the United States Bank bill, which Mr. Madison vetoed, which 
right of instruction he most ably and eloquently advocated in 
Congress in 1316, and when himself was instructed in 1C36, 



22 

resigned his seat in the senate of the United States, because ho 
could nol conscient'ousl) obey. In 1819 we find him making 
one of the most masterly efforts of forensic eloquence ever heard 
in the house of representative, against the early corruptions 
of the United States Bank, which was afterwards conquered by 
Gen. Jackson after a conflict of eight years, in which, in the 
General's own language, it aspired to no divided empire. 

Tis strange how ignorant some who abuse the President arc 
of his superior order of talent. 

That great speech against the bank only three years after it 
was chartered, in which it has been said that he unmasked the 
monster in the don of his iniquity, should be read and treasured 
np in the mind of every freeman, to keep him ever on his guard 
against the unhallowed encroachments of associated wealth and 
powerful monopolies. This speech with his eulogy on Jeffer- 
son, were the first which attracted my attention, and since 
which I have admired him as an orator and a statesman, in the 
very first rank of a country most prolific in great names. I 
recollect receiving that splendid eulogy soon after it was de- 
livered, and with a fellow student, now high in literature, going 
into the field under a beautiful shade, and alternately reading till 
we had entirely committed it, to the neglect of our lessons, as 
we found when the professors bell rang in our ears. Let those 
who call him feeble read either of the above speeches, or his ele- 
gant address before the literary socities of Randolp and Macon 
College, and then see by whom he is surpassed of his calumnia- 
tors, in classical correctness of taste, of fertility and brilliancy of 
imagination, consummate purity of diction, or in any of the at- 
tributes which constitute the scholar, the orator, and the states- 
man. 

We again see him sustaining Gen. Jackson's veto in 1!{32, in 
the same masterly powers, and on all proper occasions has he 
evinced his deep and settled hostility to a national bank, and in 
the language of Mr. Benton, "There lives not a man on earth 
60 long and so deeply committed against a national bank as 
Mr. Tyler, not even excepting General Jackson and Thomas H. 
Benton. Mr. T-'lcr began the war before I was in the senate, 
and before General Jackson was President, v and still he is branded 
as a traitor by such men as IJotts, who in every point of view is 
as much below him as the earth we inhabit is below the heavens 
above. When has John Tyler ever failed in coming up to any 
emergency however groat ! When has he ever proved himself 
an unworthy decendant of his illustrious ancestry, or of the no- 
ble State which gave him birth, and what true son of this great 
union would not feel proud in any clime of claiming him as a 
countryman, &t of ranking him with the greatest and the best of 
the distinguished patriots fc statesmen his country has produced? 
Who that has a heart would not gladly adopt the language of 
Gov. Reynold, when he said, "This proves the president to be a 
lineil decendant of that groat and glorious state which has pro- 
duced so many wise and giftcdjetatesnjen? The state may feel 



23 

proud for her talented and enlightened son John Tyler, and place 
him high in the estimation of the fathers ot the republic.'' 

Yes, such is the man you have so often heard so wantonly and 
unjustly abused by the minions of both Van Buren and Clay, and 
abused for his very worth. Who as a rentleman in his social in- 
tercourse with his fellows, has a heart so frank and manners so 
easy and affable, that he always wins. Who in all theduties and 
endearment of domestic life, has ever sustained the relative po- 
sitions of the husband and the father, with an affection and a 
kindness that is seldom seen in those engrossed so deeply in the 
affairs of state. Whose eloquence was an "'era in our senate,"' 
and lam yet to learn that, for fervid, chaste, and cunvincing elo- 
quence, he has been surpassed since the days of Henry anu Otis, 
not even excepting the orations of the God-like Daniel, and Ken- 
tucky's rash and haughty son : who as a man and a citizen has 
ever been best beloved where best known, and whose personal 
popularity among his neighbors, seemed almost incredible, hav- 
ing had no paraflel in the history of our republic; who as a 
statesman by his bold and masterly strokes of policy, with the 
deciucd opposition of the ultras of both parties, has actually done 
more for the benefit of his courtrymen and the cause of freedom, 
than any man of the aye in which we live ; who as the execu- 
tive officer of twenty-six confederated states, containing 
twenty millions of freemen, with the most complex government 
onc.jiii lias exhibited a firmness, c ecision, and puwer -.f concep- 
tion, that prostiated one party, and is now paralizing the oppo- 
sition of another, and well might I say of him as Grattan said of 
Chatham. — u The secretary stood alone, modern degenuary had 
not reached him ; the features of his mind had assumed the 
haiuiiiouu ol antiquity, while with one hand lie smote the house 
oi Bourbon, with the other he wielded the democracy of En- 
gland." 

Yes, such is the man I learned to love when Iicad and heard 
read, and read over again in the pure shade upon my own native 
hills, in my boyhood, and endeavored to i. hale some of its pathos 
and sumlimity, his great eulogium on Ins own and uitr own politi- 
cal fattier, the immortal author or tne declaration of American 
Independence, and would that I at this time possessed some of 
that fervid and lofty spirit and soul stirring genius, that I might 
do more ample justice in delineating the character o* him who so 
honorably fills the chair of state, oue (fignitied by him he so rich- 
ly eulogized. It was with feelings like these that I raised to 
the mast head, and inscribed upon the banner of the first demo- 
cratic paper in this Union that came out in his support the name 
of John Tyler, with such feelings have 1 continued my unceasing 
exertions, after being called the Tyler party in my own ft'tate, 
till I have seen the "corporal's guard'' swell to a mighty army 
of grateful freemen, determined to do him ample and speedy- 
justice, from the time that his cabinet resigned which with diffi- 
culty he could fill, till I see him able to call to the first place 
in his councils John C. Calhoun, and send on a foreign mission 



24 

VVm. R. King, and see an American senate who had seemed 
determined to embarrass him in every important appointment, 
unan mously confirm them both. 

Till Mr. Van Buren's own iile leaders admit him to be the 
only man with whom the democracy can defeat Henry Clay. 
And till I see the whigs fearful that he will be the nominee of 
both Baltimore conventions, knowing the tide will thereby be 
rolled buck upon them, and their overthrow would then be as 
sure as their success would otherwise be certain, and till we see 
the American people, rising with their native dignity, caring 
not for party forms, trampling in the dust the shackles the 
demagogue would fasten upon them, in the sentiment of Curran, 
"their souls walking abroad in their own majesty, the:r bodies 
swelling beyond the measure of their chains, standing redeemed, 
regenerated, and disenthralled." When we behold such a mag- 
nificent spectacle, well may we exclaim that truth is mighty and 
will prevail ; and that it remained for the people of this conti- 
nent to wipe the foul stain of ingratitude from the character of 
freemen. 

With such feelings as now thrill through this assembly let us 
return to our respective homes, and ask our neighbors and our 
friends no longer to listen to those who would recklessly bring 
upon us another Waterloo defeat, who would then have been 
been twice mistaken, and would twice have prostrated the coun- 
try and the hope of the ultimate triumph ofdemocratc principles. 
Let us ask the honests democrat in every town, county aul state, 
not to involve their fortunes again with the man for whom they 
have done so much, and who would again be defeated as sure as 
fate itself. 

Let us point them to the only candidate who can succeed, and 
urge them on to prompt, continued, energetic and heart-felt 
action in his favor. Let us appeal to their gratitude, to their 
magnanimity, to their justice. Lotus point them to the culo- 
giums pronounced in yon senate chamber for his lofty acts of 
patriotism at the i ;ion, and to the respons? and heartfel 
j, ruse of the whole democratic press and democratic party. 

Let us ask them in kindness not again to be deceived by the 
selfish politician who would again jeo] ardize tne dearer interests 
of the ii public, and w ; . i loves them not. Let us show them the 
dangen i f the institution his course before would have fastened 
upon us, and appeal to their patriotism, and as they wish tc 
transmit unimpaired to their children the precious it. heritance o: 
their ancestors, to rally around the Hercules who was alone abl* 
o smother the m onster. 



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